Paedophiles use modern tech to mask identity, escape law

Thiruvananthapuram: Temporary phone numbers and emails that self-destruct within 15 minutes are the newest tech used by paedophiles to get into messenger groups that share child pornographic content, according to the police. The Countering Child Sexual Exploitation wing of state police had on Saturday busted several groups on WhatsApp and Telegram apps and arrested 47 persons.
ADGP Manoj Abraham, who leads the State Police Cyberdome, whose vigil led to the raids and consequent arrests on Saturday, said that users relied on websites and apps that can generate temporary phone numbers of emails to get access to these groups.
“Perpetrators use temporary numbers generated using these websites or apps to create a new account on WhatsApp and Telegram in order to conceal their real identity. Once the OTP is received and new account is active, the phone number is no longer needed. The number ceases to exist after 15 to 20 minutes,” the ADGP said. Even though those numbers can be seen on the members’ list of the group, it is impossible to call or send text to these numbers.
In the case of Telegram groups, there are options to hide phone number from other group members. Hence Telegram users use similarly acquired temporary emails to receive the invite link of groups. These temporary numbers also make it hard for the cyber sleuths to locate the users.
“We could arrest only two users who were using this technique. A great deal of effort, including technical and tactical, went into locating and nabbing them. Both these users turned out to be IT professionals,” Abraham said, adding that a great number of paedophiles who are using this method to mask their identity are still at large.
The police have identified more than 3,000 chatrooms of paedophiles across darknet, WhatsApp and Telegram platforms. There are many chatrooms exclusively run by Malayalis in darknet. But it is too difficult to identify its members and collect evidence against them.
The police have also noticed numerous numbers originating from Pakistan and Gulf countries too in the groups where Malayalis were found.
The police have managed to track down the activities of paedophiles in cyberspace using most modern digital tools as perpetrators often communicate in code language.